HMV beats Amazon and reclaims top spot as Britain's biggest retailer of physical music

HMV is making a comeback on the high street, reclaiming the top spot as the UK's biggest seller of physical music, with vinyl sales soaring to their highest in over 20 years.

Total sales climbed to £365.7m in the year to December, up from £311.2m from the same period the previous year. Like-for-like CD sales enjoyed a bump of 1.5 per cent, but sales of vinyl albums really took off, rocketing 170 per cent.

Despite fierce competition from online offerings, DVD and BluRay sales were also up 0.5 per cent. In the two weeks leading up to Christmas, HMV sold one in three of all CDs and DVDs in the UK, overtaking internet rival Amazon.

Paul McGowan, chief executive of HMV owner Hilco Capital, said:

HMV has captured more and more market share in a year when major new movie releases have been scarce and there have been only a few major album successes.

The company had a "very strong" Black Friday but managed to keep profits on track. HMV went into administration in 2013 and was subsequently bought by Hilco in a £40m deal. Hilco embarked on a significant restructuring programme to turn things around. Last January, HMV’s flagship 60,000 square foot store at 150 Oxford Street was sold off to Sports Direct.

HMV has been the recipient of good news in recent months, with Hilco reporting in September that every one of HMV’s stores is now profitable following to its restructuring programme.

"With a bumper year of new releases already planned for 2015 we expect to have overall growth in like-for-like DVD and BluRay sales as well as continued growth in the physical music sector with vinyl also expected to continue its revival", McGowan said.